BY JOY OFASIA
It had always been Mary Elizabeth Ramosaea known as MJ’s vision and passion to help people in the community.
It all started when MJ was only 3 years old when she started travelling around with her mother who at that time worked with Non-government organizations and did a lot of travelling to communities doing a lot of activism work for women.
As MJ grew older, her educational background was far different from what she had in her heart the whole time and that is to work with people in the community.
After completing her studies, Elizabeth engaged in a lot of voluntary work with non-government organizations in the country and used those opportunities to study more about the people in Solomon Islands and their needs especially with women’s needs. Whilst doing that, Elizabeth built her knowledge and understanding about communities in the country.
It all come about when MJ took a job working for ‘WaterAid Australia’ in 2016 working on a research focusing on Menstrual Health when she finally knew what she had to do.
MJ understood that menstrual health was a big challenge that women and girls face in the country.
MJ found, in a research made in 2016 which shows that Solomon Islands like many other Melanesian countries, women face challenges on how to manage their menstruation Hygiene which leads to so many impacts on their lives physically, participation at school, their work and contribution in the community and physical health.
“We know that due to some of our cultural practices – it prevented women from performing certain behaviors and activities some of which is that, most women do not discuss ‘menstruation’ with their daughters, which is sad to know,” MJ said.
In 2017, the determined young woman, with the support of WaterAid, established the ‘MJ Enterprises.’
“The MJ enterprises is a small business that produces ‘Kaleko Stei’ free which are reusable pads designed for women and girls in the Solomon islands which is supported by WaterAid,” MJ said.
“Our goal is to help address the key challenge that women and girls experience in the country with regards to their menstrual health,” she said.
“We design reusable pads (kaleko steifree) a quality locally made menstrual hygiene product for women and girls to use during their menstruation which can be used for 2-3 years,” she said.
MJ Enterprises also provides informations about the kaleko stei free products and information’s on how women and girls can manage their menstruation, in some communities in the provinces.
“One of our main challenges with what we do was getting down with the chiefs and leaders in the communities to explain what we do and its importance towards out women and girls in the communities,” she explained.
“But despite this challenge we managed to make our way through and our target is to cover all nine provinces in the country,” she said.
MJ continues to encourage women and girls to have an open mind regarding issues that affect other women in the country.
“Women needs to help and support each other. Working together is the key – helping each other with new knowledge and information’s to build each other up to address issues affecting women in the country,” MJ said.
[Photos Credit: MJ Enterprise]
